Mobile Robots

Generally speaking a mobile robot is an automatic machine that have capability to move in a given environment. It's not attached to a fixed surface like manipulator. It can move in the environment. Different design of robots are used in different environments. Generally mobile robots operating in three typical environments:

on the solid surface (land or home robots)

in the air (aerial robots, UAVs)

in the water (underwater robots, AUVs)

Land mobile robots mainly used wheels, tracks or legs to move.Recently we are observing the growing number of autonomous mobile robots designed for home use . For example : vacuum cleaning, pool cleaning, gutter cleaning, lawn mower and so on. There is also a growing number of service robots.

Robot autonomy

Nowadays mobile robots can perform task without continuous human guidance. We call this ability "autonomy". Autonomous mobile robot is able to do some task in real-world environment without external control. They are also capable of adapting to some environmental changes.

Where am I ?

The key task in all autonomous mobile robot applications is robot position determination. For outdoor navigation GPS is commonly used. However for indoor mobile robot navigation, single, suitable solution doesn't exist. In the simulation environment the absolute position is usually computed. However, in practical experiments relative position is measured more often.